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Article published April 20, 2013

Air pollution 1st threat

GG
Reid Joyce Middlesex Township

Two representatives from Pittsburgh’s Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP!) made a presentation on April 18 at the Middlesex Township municipal building.They addressed a community educational event sponsored by Marcellus Outreach Middlesex (MOM) about air pollution caused by “fracking” and related gas-production processes.This brings us full circle. Recent community presentations focused on the poisoning of water supplies that has followed where fracking has been employed.Now we see that the release of volatile organic compounds and other carcinogens and endocrine disruptors into the atmosphere at all stages of natural gas production makes air pollution the most immediate threat to health and safety in communities assailed by Marcellus Shale drilling.Deaths from poisoned water will follow — just a bit later, and over a longer period.What can we do in the face of these relentless assaults on our lives, our health and our environment? MOM’s upcoming information events will begin to focus on community rights and mechanisms by which we can begin to regain the constitutionally guaranteed rights to clean air and water and self-government that our corrupt state politicians are desperately trying to give away to greedy and predatory Big Gas.